Time Goes By
by XanAxe14
Summary: All he wanted was to give her some time, but he's seen the changes in the last couple of weeks. Dottie O'Connor refuses to even look at him. After Extreme Rules, on Raw, he learns something about Dottie that he didn't before, and it nearly costs her sister Cait her job. It also shines a light on feelings he thought he didn't have for Dottie. Part 3 of the Dottie Series.


Fergal Devitt looked at his phone. The fight with his girlfriend had rattled him. He hadn't even spoken to Dottie for several weeks, not since their night out together.

"You need to stop trying to be friends with her," Cathy had said.

"I hate you!" Dottie's words echoed shortly after reliving what his girlfriend said.

That hurt the worst of all the things Fergal had heard, and it came from Dottie O'Connor, the woman that had the biggest crush on him.

All he wanted was to make her feel safe. Fergal's intent was to get her to not be afraid, there had been an incident that night when she got over stimulated and went mute for a few hours, only saying one word or two. It was an accident that he woke up with his arm around her the next morning.

"I hate you!" She had yelled at him.

Friends, that's what his intentions were. She was a sweet woman, she was cute and innocent, but he didn't have anything else to that.

Riding high on his Extreme Rules win against Constable Baron Corbin, as expected. Though it was on the kickoff show, it still felt good to win.

"Hey, man." AJ Styles greeted when he was walking back. "Great work out there."

"Thanks, mate." Fergal smiled but it didn't last long.

Around AJ's shoulder he saw Dottie, her red hair swaying in it's usual ponytail. She was walking outside the locker room where the costume department was supposed to be. She was looking up at Drew McIntyre, who was talking to her about something. Something he said made her smile.

"Still having problems with Dot?" AJ asked.

Ever since the night after Money in the Bank, after that Raw show and their night out, he hadn't spoken to Dottie. He saw plenty of her when she wasn't looking.

Everyone had heard about what happened, it wasn't hard for someone to hear her yell "I hate you, Fergal," at the top of her lungs at him. AJ had been nearby with his former Bullet Club friends. Staying away was the best thing to do,

"She doesn't hate you." AJ said.

"Sure as hell feels like it."

Drew handed Dottie his jacket, motioning to something on the inside. Then the man known as Dolph Ziggler walked up to Drew. The two were a partnered group in Raw. Dottie looked at Nick Nemeth but looked at Drew.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Nick said. "Look, it was wrong of me to call you a retard. I was mad at your sister."

Fergal took a step towards them, Drew's eyes flashed up at him but AJ caught his shoulder.

"No, man, let her deal with this." AJ said.

He took a breath and Drew nodded. Drew had a soft spot for Dottie, maybe a big brother sort of thing that she needed. He would step in if Ziggler did something.

"I really am sorry, Dorothy." Nick said.

"Okay. Thank you for apologizing." She said.

"Are you hungry? Have you eaten today?"

She shook her head, her ponytail waving slightly around her shoulders.

"Well, how about something to eat. I'll walk you to catering, it's not far from the costume department." Nick said.

And she nodded. "Okay."

Nemeth wrapped an arm around her hip and guided her the way to the catering. She was red in the face but she didn't look scared. Drew followed them, nodding at AJ and Fergal on the way out. Dottie looked away from them, turning her head away when she obviously saw him.

"I don't like this." Fergal said.

"I know, man, I know. But I think it's for the best."

"Why?"

"If he screws up, maybe she'll come to you."

"I highly doubt that." Fergal mumbled.

He had to get away. Fergal walked to the locker room, a headache starting to form in his head.

* * *

Fergal watched Seth Rollins lose his title match against Dolph Ziggler. He had changed and was hanging around with AJ, him and a few others were heading out after the show to do some partying, and Fergal wanted to see if Colby wanted to join them.

"Little Dot," the man known as Braun called out.

Seeing Dottie standing outside of the costume department room was mildly shocking. She was standing with Cait, close to where the performers came and went for the main stage. The crowd was loud, Fergal saw Dottie with her shoulders up near her ears, and her back to the curtain but with Cait there she was not having a problem.

Three weeks changed her, she was doing things that she hadn't done before.

"Hey," Nick greeted them when he came through the curtain. "Enjoy the show?"

"Dottie did." Cait crossed her arms.

"Sorry about Colby not winning, Dot. That's the way things happen sometimes." Drew said as he patted her back.

"I know. I'm getting used to it." She said. "Are you okay?"

"We're good, a little sore in the shoulders but nothing that can't be fixed with a good back rub. You any good at it, Dot?" Nick asked.

She shrugged. Cait glared, her brows so tight they wrinkled her forehead.

When Colby came through the curtain, Dottie did something that took even seemed to take Cait by surprise. Colby didn't ask for a hug, but he accepted one from Dottie as she turned to the man who had lost again. She had to stand on her tiptoes, but even she had never wrapped her arms around Fergal's neck to hug him.

"Are you okay? Did you give Nick a bloody nose?" She asked when she pulled back. "Are you okay, Colby?"

"Yes, Dottie, I'm fine. Are you going out to eat tonight after the show?"

"Yeah, a few of us are. Would you like to join us?" Cait asked.

"Sure. Sounds great."

Well, so much for going out to a pub after the show. Fergal stood by and watched them leave, Dottie with a smile on her small round face. She would look back at Nick and Drew, both of whom were following. Drew for obvious reasons.

"Hey, man. Ready? I can't hang out long, I have to get going to SD Live." AJ said. "Gallows and Anderson are going to meet up with me in the next town though."

"Yeah, sure."

They passed the costume department locker room. Because Raw was going to be in Buffalo, NY they had taken down the stuff and were being shipped ahead by truck. He did see Dottie in there talking to Nick while Drew was texting his wife.

"How's she doing?" Fergal asked the Scotsman.

"Okay, I think. Want for me to keep an eye on her?"

"Could you, mate? That would be great."

Drew nodded. Cait wasn't anywhere to be seen. So she didn't get to see Nick push a strand of Dottie's hair behind her ear as they stood talking. Well Nick was doing all the talking and she was watching him.

Running a hand over his beard, Fergal sighed before he followed AJ. A drink could settle his nerves, but he didn't know for how long.

* * *

When Fergal got to Buffalo sometime the next morning, he wasn't checking into a hotel this time. He was close to NYC, where he'd been living for a few years in Brooklyn. It was good to be back in his own area again.

Cathy and him met up, she lived nearby and they went out for breakfast.

"So, have you talked to her yet?" Cathy asked.

"Dottie?" He asked looking up from his plate. "No."

"Well that's good, isn't it? I mean, you showing your ass on Twitter would probably make her feel more hot for you."

"Can we please not talk about her?"

"Why? I mean, you did sort of string her along."

In part because he didn't know how to tell her straight up. Everyone knew Dottie had a thing for him, he just assumed it was a crush but in her head it was more like a Fantasy come true. The hurt in her eyes, her green eyes, was enough to break that part of his heart.

Putting his fork down, Fergal crossed his arms. "Let's talk about something else, Cathy."

"Okay, Colby isn't seeing anyone. He broke up with that girl of his."

Fergal blinked. "How do you know this?"

"I'm a reporter for the WWE, I'm supposed to know about this kind of stuff." She smiled and gave a shrug of one shoulder. "You don't think he would actually try to go out with that girl, would he?"

"Dottie? I know she likes him, as a friend…"

"Dolph seemed rather happy with her last night."

His chest constricted. "Cathy, I want you to stop talking about Dottie like that, okay. Just stop. I'm giving her time to calm down."

"Calm down, she won't even look at you, Ferg. She won't even acknowledge your presence and you still want to be friends with an emotionally damaged girl that looked at you like some sort of Prince Charming who could solve all her problems."

Fergal's chest constricted. It was hard to breathe as he looked at his girlfriend of a few months.

Dottie respected people, she was really respectful of anyone who at least showed her some respect in return. Dottie liked uniqueness in a person, where Fergal may not have been all that tall she looked at him like he was worth something. Her getting annoyed at the company who wasn't pushing him, at least one time, wasn't great but he felt she cared.

And then it all ended. Because he didn't tell her he was in a relationship.

Silence fell on the two of them. Cathy was more interested in her phone and Fergal was not in the least bit hungry.

He had somewhere to be, he was going to hang out with the Buffalo Bills, an NFL team. There was going to be something going on there and he said he meet up with Cathy at the venue later after breakfast.

If anything, just to have something to do that didn't involve Dottie would be great.

* * *

Fergal came to work on time, ahead of time actually. Cathy was there with him and he saw Drew standing in front of the costume department with his shoulder up against the doorframe.

Dottie was working diligently on something, probably Drew's coat again. It was the fact that Nick Nemeth was in the room with her that bothered him.

"Hey." Drew said. "Ready to get our asses kicked?"

"Can't wait. I'm taking the fall though."

"Great, means I get the fist of justice to my pretty face. How are you handling things?"

"As good as I can. He been okay with her?"

"Yeah, since getting here he's been talking to her and stuff like that."

Fergal made eye contact with Nick, who had been looking over at them. His smile wasn't genuine though, it wasn't good enough for Fergal's standards.

"Hey, Dot, Fergal's here. Want to say hi?" Nick asked the redhead woman.

"No."

One little word tore at his chest. It was enough to turn away from the door and head towards the catering area.

Cait caught his arm as he passed by in the hall. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm good."

"No you're not. If anything, you're like me. What the hell is Nemeth doing with my sister?"

"I don't know but Drew's keeping an eye on them."

"Well, at least one of the two is good enough to be around her." She raked a hand through her hair. "How are you doing? I'm sorry if I haven't talked to you in the last couple of weeks."

"Don't be sorry, Cait. You're watching out for your sister. Don't apologize for that."

"So how are you doing?"

"Trying to keep busy. Nemeth saw me at the door checking up on Dottie." He told her exactly what happened, all the way down to the stupid ass smile on Nemeth's face.

She sighed. "I know it's extremely confusing for Dottie right now. She thinks if she just doesn't acknowledge your presence then she won't be hurt. If she doesn't like something then she doesn't want to have anything to do with it."

And that It was him. She didn't like him enough anymore to be around him, to be cordial and root for him even when he did lose, again.

"At least Drew's a friend she can trust. His wife works with children like Dottie." Cait said.

There was that, Fergal knew that Drew would be there to help Dottie out.

"She's been doing better about leaving the costume department." Fergal noted.

"Yeah, she is. Colby sort of talked her into standing around the curtain, just to get used to the noises and the music. She's not fond of it but she's doing good about it."

"She hugged him. She hugged Colby."

"Colby's not dating anyone at the moment. But he's made it clear to Dottie that he's her friend and that he wants her to hug him after each and every match, even if he loses."

"Great." Fergal rubbed his face. "I'm just going to go hole up somewhere until my match."

"Sure. I'll talk to you later." The short redhead with blue eyes, Dottie's younger sister who was more like an older sister, said.

Dottie was lucky to have someone like Cait in her life. Cait tried her hardest, especially when trying to convince Dottie that Fergal was just being nice, he was just trying to be a friend.

The pain he felt about everything hurt. It hurt worse than the Spear he took from Roman Reigns, but at least he kept his head in the match and played through the spots that they all agreed on.

Joe Anoa'i stopped him when he walked through the curtain. He'd hoped to see Dottie there but Joe was the first to approach him.

"Don't want to alarm you, but I saw your girlfriend talking to Dottie."

"What?" He turned around.

He found Cathy talking to Dottie, showing her something on the phone. Whatever she saw, Dottie covered her mouth, turned and high tailed it out of there.

"What did you do?" He asked Cathy.

"Nothing. I wanted to show her some of your pictures."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to see what she would do. I mean, you say one thing but how do I know it's true."

"What the fuck is going on? Drew, check on Dottie for me." Cait said. "What is going on?"

"My bleeding ass," Fergal looked at his girlfriend.

"What the hell is your issue? Do you even know my sister?" Cait asked, stepping up to the taller woman.

Drew walked around them, heading in the direction that Dottie went in. He would have followed but there was still a very angry redhead who may or may not have liked Cathy at the moment.

"What's the big deal? I just wanted to see if she still has a thing for my boyfriend. From the look of it, no."

"She was sexually abused, you fucking bitch. The last time she saw a man's ass…" Cait didn't say anything else before shoving passed the woman.

"I...Fergal, I didn't...I didn't think…" Cathy turned to him.

"That's the problem, you didn't think." He walked away from her. "I'm going to see if she's okay. Go do something worth while for once."

"Fergal!"

He ignored her and went to the costume department.

Colby was in there holding onto Dottie, Drew stood at the doorway blocking anyone from going in. Cait was in there, hands jabbed in her hair and looking just as pissed off as ever. Colby looked over when Drew made a sound. Dottie wasn't crying, but she was holding onto Colby with a death grip, her knuckles turning white.

"What the hell happened?" Nick asked. "Dot, hey Red. Come on, talk to me, Babe."

She didn't answer, her face buried in Colby's chest.

"She went mute again." Cait said. "Come on, guys, can you leave? Just give her some time, all right?" Cait didn't say anything about Fergal being there.

"I have my place to get to. I'll check up on her later." Nick said.

Drew elbowed Fergal. "Come on, locker room."

Fergal followed. He took one more look before leaving. While Nick went to be Dolph Ziggler for the fans, Colby stayed behind obviously being the person that Cait and Dottie needed at the moment.

"I didn't know that about her." Fergal said as he sat down in front of his locker.

"I did. Why do you think I hover anytime Nick is involved?" Drew asked. "People with autism get taken advantage of a lot, my wife told me soon after I told her about Dottie. They get manipulated and then they break. In Dottie's case, she goes mute."

"She also stays away from whatever it is that she hates. She spent three weeks hating me."

"Hate to break it to you, Balor, but she's never going to stop liking you, no matter what she says." The taller man stretched his legs out. "But she doesn't like that you weren't up front about dating someone else."

"Yeah, I know. I get that."

"You're not offended that Cait called your girlfriend an effing bitch?"

"I'll deal with that later. I'm just so torn up about Dottie."

"Me, too. But since we're stuck here for a few more hours, how about we do something for Dot?"

"What?"

"Keep a secret?" Drew asked.

"Sure, what?"

"I purposefully rip my coat so that I can get Dot to fix it for me. Not because I'm romantically interested, just so I can talk to her and see how she's doing. Rip something of yours, have her fix it. See if she does or don't. My guess, she'll fix it."

Dottie was no longer holding onto Colby for dear life. She was sitting at least. Cait was in there when Fergal came by a little later.

"Cait, I know you're busy, but could you get something done for me?" Fergal said.

"Sure, hun, what?" Cait turned from some of her papers she was looking at.

"Got this rip here. This is my best leather coat at the moment. Think you can get it fixed?" He asked handing it to her.

Dottie wasn't looking up, she was looking away.

"I'm not the one that fixes tears. I'm just the one that deals with the designs." She glanced back at Dottie. "I'll make sure it gets done." She took it from him.

Cait put it down in front of Dottie, Colby nodded from where he was sitting next to her.

"I'll be back for it later." He said.

"Sure." Cait replied.

Dottie rocked back and forth, but this time she was staring at the jacket that was in front of her. Whatever was going through her head was not going good as he saw a tear roll down her cheek. Colby put a hand on her shoulder and whispered something.

He left, Fergal found his girlfriend over at the Production room, where Vince was talking to her. Cathy was red in the face as she was talking to the CEO of the WWE, because it wasn't just Vince McMahon there, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were also talking to her.

"Balor, come here." Triple H motioned. "We just gotten word about an issue with one of our costume department workers."

"Dottie hasn't done anything wrong has she?" Fergal asked.

"Who?" Vince asked, his brows furrowing.

"The autistic seamstress we hired. No, this is Caitlin O'Connor, the head costume designer." Triple H said. "Cathy has lodged a complaint about being verbally harassed by her."

"Yes, that's true but it was warranted." Fergal said and Cathy gaped at him. "Caitlin is very protective of her sister, who had been sexually abused. Cathy didn't know that and showed her pictures of my recent Twitter shoot against Baron Corbin." Fergal crossed his arms.

"This the same woman that had a crush on you? The special needs woman?" Triple H asked and Fergal nodded. "Everyone knows about her. Why didn't you try to get to know her, Kelley?"

"I, uh, I didn't have enough time." She rubbed the back of her hand. "I was," she was interrupted by Stephanie.

"You were jealous weren't you? Look, Dad, Caitlin is a great worker. Everyone knows she's protective of her older sister. What happened was a mistake and we'll dock some of her pay for that transgression. But firing her is out of the question."

"And the woman, this Dottie?"

"She's trying to be normal, sir. I get the impression that her personal life was hell for most of it and hasn't been able to develop. Being her friend was my first intent but I guess she thought I had romantic feelings for her."

"Do you?" Vince asked. Even Cathy looked at him.

"Now? I don't know. But my worry for her mental health is there. I would do anything to make sure she's safe. She's a good worker, she's a hard worker, both of the sisters. But my personal problems would never come in between them and their jobs."

"Those are smart words, Devitt." Vince said. "We'll dock Caitlin's pay for the slip of the tongue but I don't think a full termination is called for knowing how protective she is of her sister. Anyone with brains would know this by now."

Cathy looked away.

Fergal left, Cathy followed.

"Ferg, can we talk?" She asked.

"About your jealousy?" He stopped and looked at her. "I made a mistake not telling Dottie about us. But what you did was wrong. You have to do something about it."

"Do what?" She asked.

"Apologize not just to Dottie but Cait."

"Why? What good would it do?"

"It would do a lot of good for me knowing that you at least tried to fix something that you started."

"It was a joke…"

"A poorly executed one at that."

"Fergal, please. If there was none of this between you and her then none of this would have happened."

"At least I tried to be a friend instead of just walked up to her and presented my bleeding ass."

Just saying that, the look on Dottie's face was seared into his mind. Fear, absolute fear. She'd gone whiter than he ever thought possible and it was a fear of him.

"She fears me now because of something that happened to her. I don't ever what her to feel that way about me ever again." He said.

"So you're just going to cater to her needs? What about mine?"

"You lost that the moment you tried to get her to be jealous. We may as well be over, Cathy. What happened I don't want to ever happen again."

And he turned and walked away. He headed back to the costume department. Cait was talking to one of the members of Ruby Riott, but Colby wasn't in there. His place in the show would be coming up soon. Dottie was still at her station, rocking back and forth but his jacket was still being mended.

"Thanks for coming by." Cait said to the blonde haired woman.

"No problem." Liv said. "Anyway, thanks for bringing up the problems. I'll let you get back to work."

Cait looked at him. Without saying a word she dropped the papers on the table and walked up to him.

"Let me guess, I'm fired?" She said.

"No. You'll be docked some pay but they sided with me when I told them what happened."

"I should learn to keep my mouth shut."

"No, you had every right to be that angry, it would be if it were my own sister." He glanced at Dottie. "Still quiet?"

"Yeah, unfortunately."

"To hell…" Fergal turned and walked up to Dottie.

He pulled the chair Colby had been sitting on and faced Dottie as he sat down. She ducked her head, but he said nothing. He stared at her.

"Fergal? What are you doing?"

"Waiting for Dottie to talk to me. She may think she hates me but I know that's not true. So I'm going to wait until she's calmed down so she can talk to me like she used to."

"You'll be waiting a while." Cait said.

"I have nowhere to be with anyone. I can wait." He leaned forward so that he was resting his elbows on his knees.

Really he would wait until hell froze over if it meant getting Dottie to talk to him.

* * *

 **A/N: Dottie's saga isn't over yet, but it will be on a burner because life just got hectic for me. I'll be back when I can. Hope you liked this little update with Dottie and Fergal. I may do a Cait and Colby thing but I'm not sure yet.**


End file.
